Jewish Israelis are not the only people living in Israel. Even though they make up about 20 percent of the population, Arabs are too often ignored or excluded (Extra!, 3/09).
This is especially noticeable when it comes to opinion polling within Israel. In an article discussing the “withering international criticism” of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Gaza attacks, the New York Times (8/6/14) reported this about Israeli opinion:
In a survey for the newspaper Haaretz conducted Tuesday after the onset of the cease-fire, about half of the Israelis surveyed said that neither Israel nor Hamas had won. Nearly six out of 10 said the goals declared by the government of destroying the tunnels and dealing Hamas a harsh blow were only partly achieved.
The same survey, according to Haaretz, also showed that the “Israeli public…overwhelmingly approves” of the goverment’s performance.
But neither the Times or Haaretz specified if Jewish Israelis were the only ones surveyed.
This is important because the exclusion of Palestinians from public opinion polling in Israel is actually quite common–though it’s not always reported clearly. A recent Washington Post article (7/29/14) ran with a headline proclaiming, “Israelis Support Netanyahu and Gaza War, Despite Rising Deaths on Both Sides.” The Post cited various polls demonstrating support for the Israeli government’s current campaign in Gaza:
A poll this week for Israel’s Channel 10 news, conducted by the Sarid Institute, found that 87 percent of Jewish Israelis support continuing the Gaza operation. A survey by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 95 percent of Israeli Jews think the operation in Gaza is just, and 4 of 5 oppose a unilateral withdrawal. Just 4 percent said the Israeli military has used excessive force.
And in another survey this week, by the University of Haifa, 85 percent of Jewish Israelis said they are “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with Netanyahu’s leadership.
It doesn’t take much to realize that the only ones surveyed in these polls were Jewish Israelis, which effectively excludes the opinions of non-Jewish Palestinians living in Israel, many of whom may have very different views about the devastation in Gaza.
The Post should have clarified or corrected the headline. In an article about Israeli public opinion on the Gaza War, the website Vox (7/31/14) cited the same survey by the Israel Democracy Institute; however, Vox later issued a correction specifying that the survey only polled “Jewish Israelis, rather than all Israelis” and modified their headline accordingly.
It’s possible that including Palestinians living in Israel in the polling might affect poll results (Al Jazaeera, 7/8/14, 8/5/14). But at the very least, if polls of the Israeli public exclude Arabs, journalists should acknowledge this fact. Not doing so only serves to further marginalize a perspective that is already seldom heard in US media.
Aldo Guerrero is a FAIR intern.
This is an excellent point. Also excluded is meaningful discussion the conditions under which these Israeli citizens live and the treatment they face. Not only do Israeli Jews support the unprovoked attack on Gaza by orders exceeding 90%, but something like 30% of them would like to strip Palestinian citizens of Israeli of their right to vote,30% would expel Arab Israeli citizens from Israeli territory (meaning a near third would want to ethnically cleanse the state of Israel) and nearly 60% would annex the Occupied Territories. This information would be very helpful to understanding why this keeps happening, what the US is enabling, and how the corporate media actually works.
I can imagine what the poll results would have been in Miss’ssippi in the ’60s when I was growing up, gauging the support for home grown apartheid, if only white folks were included.
“Mississippians Reject Equal Rights for All” would be just as misleading a headline, wouldn’t you say?
Thanks Ettore for reminding me why I’m an atheist.
Bottom line: The Zionists are destroying Judaism. I feel for mo brothers.
According to the latest Statistical Abstract of Israel (December 2012 figures), while it is true that ‘Arabs’ comprise some 20.6% of the Israeli population, they are not the only non Jews residing there as about 4.2% of the population is classified as ‘Others’, with Jews comprising just over 75%.
The cited headlines do, as suggested, seem to imply that the Israeli population comprises only the Jews, but do not really distort the data. Even if all the non Jews had been surveyed and responded univocally that they opposed ‘the Gaza operation’, it would still be the case that the Gaza ‘war’ is ‘hugely popular’, and so forth.
Furthermore, the content makes it clear that the survey results only include responses from Israeli Jews. This is not actually a bad thing. If responses from non Jews had been aggregated with the Jewish responses, it would likely have dilluted the data showing that an overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews support the massacre. It’s not that the views of Israeli Palestinians are uninteresting, it’s that they are more informative when disaggregated from the views of Israeli Jews, which are in turn more interesting when separated from those of the non Jewish population.
cf. http://bureauofcounterpropaganda.blogspot.com.au/2009/07/agree-to-differ.html
Gee, Aldo, I guess we’ll never see a piece about Arab pollsters ignoring their Jewish populations…given that most of the Jews were driven out of Arab countries.
IN 1948, there were about 75,000 Jews in Egypt – now about 100. In Algeria the numbers went from 140,000 to 1,500; Libya 38,000 to 0; and so on.
Forgive me if I don’t shed any tears for the Arabs in Israel, who are so oppressed that they serve in Parliament and have Arabic as an official language. Boo-hoo…
Yes, it’s useful to know that the Palestinian Arabs were excluded but equally useful to know how Jewish Israelis feel, that they are blatantly racist and all the Chomsky and Avnery blather about a divided Israeli population is just that–blather.
Just posted and received note not published. Hmm.
MY apology to FAIR. I spoke too soon. The commentary of many others is so enlightened I’m afraid mine was too shrill. Rare to see such provocative comments.
William,
Are you saying that the mistreatment of Jews you cite (appalling, and atrocious of course) justifies the killing of innocent persons who happen to be Palestinian Arabs?
And the idea that Israeli Arabs have equal rights because some serve in the Knesset is pure fantasy. Like the incidents in which they are beaten by police? Could you imagine that sort of thing happening in any other Western industrialized country without it causing a scandal?
So, you wouldn’t be arguing that these things are morally acceptable, because it sounds like you are.
So, Mr, Schmidt,
So a society where great swathes of people have racist attitudes towards the country’s largest minority groups isn’t divided? I mean if 30% of white people in America wanted to strip the 13% of the country’s black citizens of their right to vote or expel them, that wouldn’t be a divided society by your definition?
ISIS CRISIS AT FAIR — A TRUE STORY!!
HART: Naureckas, what do we do?
NAURECKAS: Huh?
HART: ISIS is targeting ethnic minorities, and the U.S. is engaged in airstrikes.
NAURECKAS: So?
HART: So how do we keep the focus on Israel? Remember our talking points: Israel is genocidal, Israel’s airstrikes are evil, etc.
NAURECKAS: Hart, how many times do I have to tell you? Israel is a special case.
HART: Remind me again.
NAURECKAS: People hated Jews when they had no state – they were slandered as rootless and parasitical – you get the idea.
HART: And now that they have a state?
NAURECKAS: Now they’re hated for having a state.
HART: Yeah, but Israel has a military, and there’s no clear separation of Church and State, and the Arab minority is discriminated against… and…and…
NAURECKAS: Spare me, Hart – we know all that. What you’re saying is that Israel behaves like every other state. Probably better, but certainly no worse.
HART: So how do we indict Israel if it behaves like every other state?
NAURECKAS: Because it’s a Jewish state, dummy. People hated the Jews when they had no state, and now they hate the Jews when they have a state.
HART: So I don’t have to worry about ISIS?
NAURECKAS; You don’t have to worry about a thing, Hart. We can say whatever we want, and people will eat it up. Keep the anti-Israel articles coming – and the more baseless and slanderous, the better!!
ISIS CRISIS AVERTED – A TRUE STORY!!
William: (puts finger up nose and roots around) DOH!
Once again we have to thank you for being the Moron Troll which shows us that FAIR must be hitting some nerves in Lame Stream Media as they are sending their Nitwork Trolls to act as Rocks in the Stream of Consciousness.
@
William, who writes: “ISIS CRISIS AT FAIR — A TRUE STORY!!”
Is that the best you can do, Arab-baiting-and-switch?
Here is something I hope you CAN understand. Israel commits massive human rights violations on the American dime. That buys Americans — including FAIR’s media critics — the right to criticize Israeli policy. You are admitting that Israel behaves like a sh!t vis-a-vis its Arab population and the Palestinians just as other nations behave as sh!ts vis-a-vis their own victim populations. What you miss is that Israel is “special” ONLY BECAUSE WE IN THE US of A PAY FOR IT, DAMMIT!
If Israel wants to behave crappily to folks, fine. There may be little the world can do about it, as long as the US has its back. Israel just needs to spend its own tax-payer money on that project, rather than ours — since Israel’s crimes implicates us in them.